The ice hockey season is in full swing, and that includes San Diego State University’s men’s ice hockey team.
Alpine resident Tim Mehrer is a member of the 2025-26 Aztecs squad and he’s having a blast.
“It’s fun to play at this high level,” the El Capitan High School alumnus said. “There are a lot of good guys on the team and I enjoy the team camaraderie.”
Mehrer attended the Lakeside school all four years before making the cross-country trek New Hampshire to play Junior hockey for the Northern Cyclones for two years. The Cyclones compete in the United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) Elite, which serves as a launching pad for college and professional leagues.
Mehrer played in 43 games his first season with the team in 2022-23 with one goal and one assist and six penalty minutes. He logged time in five playoff games with one assist. He appeared in 38 games in his second season with the Cyclones, recording nine goals and 11 assists for 20 points with four penalty minutes. He skated in six playoff games with one goal.
He took a year off from the grueling grind of Junior hockey to suit up this season for SDSU. In three games with the Aztecs, he’s been productive with three goals, three assists and six penalty minutes.
Mehrer grew up playing the standard American youth sports — baseball, soccer and lacrosse. He then transitioned to ice hockey with the San Diego Saints youth club at the 10U to 18U levels. He learned to skate at the Kroc Center.
He said ice hockey caught his attention when he noticed his father watching “Miracle,” a film about the 1980 United States gold-medalist men’s Olympic team.
“Hockey was kind of unique, no one else in San Diego was playing it,” he said.
He got his feet wet in higher levels of local hockey by playing in five games for the San Diego United Hawks, a high school team that competes in the Anaheim Ducks High School Hockey League. He appeared in 30 games with the Saints 18U-AA team in 2021-22, excelling with 17 goals and 12 assists for 29 points with 41 penalty minutes.
He finished second in scoring on that Saints team.
While he was attending El Capitan, he played three seasons of tennis for the Vaqueros, winning a San Diego Section Division III championship in 2021 as a junior and a league championship as a senior.
The 2021 season was unique Alpine skater enjoying SDSU hockey as the section combined boys and girls into a coed format in response to the coronavirus pandemic that forced teams to field shortened seasons. The coed format featured boys singles, girls singles, boys doubles, girls doubles and mixed doubles.
It was the first CIF championship in the sport for the Lakeside school.
Mehrer played doubles.
“It was an enjoyable sport,” he said. “My best friend was my doubles partner. He got me into it. It was something different from hockey.”
SDSU competes at the Division I level in the American Collegiate Hockey League, a club-based league separate from NCAA varsity teams.
This is the Aztecs third year since moving up to the ACHA’s highest level. The team is still experiencing growing pains with a 2-11-1 record through games as a member of the Western Collegiate Hockey League, one of the premier ACHA men’s playing circuits.
Mehrer ranks fifth in scoring on the team but sits just two points behind team scoring leader Braden Mayer, an Eastlake High School alumnus. Jake Abenojar, Cameron Ferraz and Ryan Elleraas are all one point ahead of Mehrer, who is tied with teammates Mason Brown and Noah Robinson.
Elleraas also played for the Cyclones.
The Alpine skater recorded two goals and two assists in a 13-1 non-conference win over Cal-State Long Beach.
